The coup & Islamic nation

By: Mohammed Abdullah Al-Yadumi* - The Islamic nation is now at a crossroads after the recent coup staged against democracy and its elected institutions. Those elected institutions were the fruit of an electoral process, whose fairness and transparency were confirmed by all local and foreign civil society organizations and different bodies specialized in supervising elections.

After the details of the coup picture were fully disclosed, and those who planned, financed, encouraged, covered up for or participated in the implementation of the coup were exposed, the Islamic nation has no option but to choose between two roads to go down. After the veil of secrecy surrounding the coup was lifted, the coup shamelessly announced that it is an unequivocal call for violence, and sent a clear message to whom it may concern that the true democracy is still unsettled issue! The Islamic nation’s political forces, therefore, have to choose between two approaches, two methods or rather two roads, which they should go down to ascend to power and run their countries: either to rise to power through the ballot box, or through coffins! There is no third option. All wise men and people of conscience should be aware of the seriousness of this matter, and the risk that this coup might succeed and continue to survive. It is a difficult equation. Thinkers and politicians should adopt a clear stance towards the absurdity of the current situation, which threatens both the present and the future of the Islamic nation. The central issue here is not a particular person, nor a party, nor a certain organization. The key issue is to be free or not to be free. The crux of the matter is how we should be ruled and how we should rule. It is the constitution and the laws based on it, which state that all men are equal. According to those laws, a handful of people shall not prove itself a cut above the rest of the people of a nation that has always been part and parcel of the world's history. The constitution, on the other hand, destroys the myth that some people were born to rule, while some others were born to be happy with the fact they should be ruled. The constitution, the laws and the state institutions certainly dispel such a myth, which has dominated some of us for hundreds of years. Regrettably, some people, who believe in such a myth, shamefully announced their support for the coup! Undoubtedly, the coup is a blatant call for violence and a recipe for extremism and disturbance of social peace! It is crystal clear that those who plotted the coup and those who supported and promoted it at home and abroad did not carefully study the current reality of the Islamic nation, nor did they learn the lesson from the peoples' revolutions against oppression and tyranny, nor did they appreciate the magnitude of the discontent felt by sons of the nation, nor did they realize, despite the big number of previous bitter experiences, the strengths of practicing the political action above the ground, and the weaknesses of practicing it under the ground! With all its different peoples, the Islamic nation, throughout history, has undergone a bitter experience of how to rise to power. Such a bitter experience has always been represented in the persistence of the monarchies against the will of people, or the use of force to eliminate opponents and perpetuate tyranny! After the end of the he Rightly-Guided Caliphs era, the wise men of this nation did not seek to develop the rule mechanism, except for the two experiences of Caliph Omar bin Abdul-Aziz and Mehmed II (the Conqueror). Therefore, we should draw upon the human experiences, which have been developed to guarantee people the right to elect their rulers in a way that spare them bloodshed and preserve the cohesion of their social structure. Do not Muslims have the right to adopt such human experience and its mechanism governing the process of the peaceful transfer of power, away from its philosophical background with which the nation might disagree? Does not this nation have the right to draw upon such an experience after the Islamic mind failed to solve the dilemma of how to rise to power without conflicts leading to bloodshed? Are not we human beings like them? Should we firstly witness bloodbath, as was the case in Europe and America that, to draw upon such an experience? Does not our nation have the right to go down this road from the point where they reached the pinnacle of their experience, taking into consideration that we have the right to add to that experience? Our history of rule is known to everyone and obstacles to rising to power are also well known. However, reasons for conflict over power are no longer frightening. Sons of the Islamic nation have never fought one another because of Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) issues, and if happened, it would be confined to the thick-headed. Conflict over the rule has been always the main reason behind any bloodshed, split inside the ranks of sons of the Islamic nation or grudges inherited and passed from general to the other, whether consciously or unconsciously! The coup invokes violence in its worst forms and incites the Islamist moderates to think that the adoption of moderation is futile. Moreover, the coup pushes most of the moderates to change their convictions about the feasibility of rising to power through commitment to the democratic approach! The exclusion of Islamists from political life will drive them to burst through all barriers, and will also turn stability into an unattainable wish! The Islamist moderation current has put an end to all forms of extremism and violence. However, we fear that some Islamists might give up moderation and turn into a deluge that destroys the democratic illusion, the ballot boxes and peaceful transfer of power! Throughout long years, Islamists held lengthy discussions about the practical and true application of democracy, and how far the other accepts Islamists. However, Islamists have almost no confidence in credible implementation of true democracy, especially that some Islamists are completely convinced that the West's position towards such an issue is primarily based on the latter's higher interests regardless of the others' interests It was a big mistake on the part of the West to support the tyrants and dictators throughout long years! We all should openly realize that in case the coup was perpetuated and the financial and moral support for it continued, we would find ourselves, all over the Islamic World, witness black days, extremist stances adopted by hardliner people, who think that they have nothing to loose. We can safely say that the current situation has become unbearable for those who think that the moderation policy is about to be proved failure. If wise men in our communities and those of our friends did not work on avoiding dangers threatening everybody before it is too late and before the moderation current vanish in bloodbath, everybody would pay the price that we fear it might be very high. The sense of moral responsibility makes it incumbent upon us to prevent ourselves from heading towards the abyss!

__________________________________________________________________________________* Chairman of the Supreme Commission of the Yemeni Congregation for Reform (Al-Tajammu'u Al-Yamani Lil-Islah